Damn Broads! Interview

This past weekend I had the pleasure of sitting down with the very hospitable Tay, Ines and Michelle of Damn Broads! A three-piece punk band based out of Torrington, CT.

So let’s start out with talking about your new album that you have coming out.

Michelle: Yeah, it’s called guilty as charged and it has 13 new songs on it, most of them were written as a three piece after our singer left. They’re awesome; we actually just got the recordings back.

That’s rad! I know you’ve gone through some line up changes, how has that affected your music? Has anything changed it at all?

Tay: Riley, our original singer, was engaged and buying a house and wanted to move on to different things, something we fully support her with, we’re all still friends. I think the music would have sounded the same because we just changed our singers. I think of us growing together as a band, our music has grown too. We’re a lot faster.

Michelle: I think it would of happened anyway; the music we played when we first started is so different from what we’re playing now. I think it’s a good change how we evolved.

Ines: I think it brought us a lot closer too.

Michelle: When she left there were so many different ways we could of went, but I’m glad we decided on this route.

Tay: We tried out a few different singers but it just didn’t come out to the sound we wanted.

Going from a four piece to a three piece?

Ines: We have to really listen to each other, especially on stage and especially because we’re all singing now. Is there anything you listen to for inspiration before you write or before you go and record to get into a certain mindset?

Ines: We get inspiration from everything around us and we like to take different parts of it all and smash it together and bang, that’s us. You’re constantly playing shows around New England, are there any pre-show rituals?

Ines: Uh, I usually I have a couple drinks to loosen up. But besides that we just play.

Michelle: I’m never nervous or anything to play, I’m more nervous about driving to the venue. I’m a really nervous driver, I’ll look up the venue before hand to make sure I don’t have to parallel park.

Tay: or we’ll get there early and save you a spot.

Speaking of venues, what are some of your favorite venues or favorite shows you’ve played?

Tay: The El n Gee was our favorite, but sadly it’s not there anymore.

Michelle: Snapper’s here in Torrington is great.

Tay: California was amazing. Definitely Fresno.

Michelle: We played a house show at a place called the Rat Box, we even have a song about it, and it effected us so much.

Are there any crazy California stories?

Michelle: There was that demon in McDonalds. I had to go change out of my sweater and in the stall there was these crazy noises coming from the stall over and then they stopped and whatever it was opened the doors and left. I asked the people sitting outside the restroom if they saw anything and they said they’ve been sitting here for a while and no ones come out.

Tay: oh and Black Santa.

Michelle: oh there was this old dude riding around on his motorcycle dressed as Santa blasting Christmas music.

Ines: It was December.

Tay: He was this big tough Harley guy. But it was California Christmas, palm trees not pine trees.

What about some history, how did you all get into music and how did you all get together?

Tay: I originally started playing guitar when I was 14, the first band I started was a metal band, and I did rhythm in that. But it really wasn’t my thing and I wanted to play punk rock. So it was great when I found

Michelle and her sister [the original lead singer] because I really wanted an all girl band and then when we found Ines I moved to drums because she’s 10 times better than I am.

Ines: I was playing different types of music to try and like expand my musical tastes in different bands and like Tay I really wanted to play a punk band, especially an all girl band, it’s something you don’t see too often. But you (looking to Michelle) hated all girl bands.

Michelle: I don’t hate all girl bands, but I’ve been in a few different bands and they never made it out of the garage. When we played our first show I was amazed because I never thought we’d get this far. Plus we met on Craigslist so that was another reason I didn’t think we’d make it. But my story is kind of boring, I’ve always been into punk, I’ve always played bass, I’ve tried other instruments but I’ve always wanted to be the bass player.

Tay: But to find these chicks in the same local area all into punk and all meet up and have it work is awesome. We definitely got lucky.

Lastly anything you want to say to the readers?

Tay: Hopefully we’re not going anywhere and go check out our new cd. It should be out soon!

Ines: Don’t judge girl bands, too many times do people see us and say “ugh a girl band” then after the set they’re like “You guys were awesome.”

There you have it, Thank you Tay, Ines and Michelle for letting me come out and ask some questions.